After being switched on and off 20 times, the ink didn’t lose its bright color under UV light, and could be kept in open air for 3 months without degrading, the team reports today in Nature Communications.

Since speleothems form only in the open air, Peros says that the fossils and speleothems together could allow researchers to reconstruct when the cave filled with water—giving researchers a detailed view of past sea level rise.

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